Chapter 28 Timelines and Videos
Hot, weak tea was given to Cassidy Parker as she sat, making herself as small and victimized as possible after she had spent the last two hours spinning a tale of being kidnapped by the women of The Lost Souls House who believed themselves to be witches, and when the officers had found her, she'd been escaping into the woods.
The officer, an idiot man, fell for her wide eyes, which she knew when shining just right with the perfect layer of unshed tears would look innocent and make her already beautiful face more alluring.
It didn't hurt that she was wearing a white eyelet dress with thin straps and pulled down just the slightest gave a perfect view of her cleavage.
She could trick them enough, give them enough easter eggs of information to keep them looking around, turning to try and catch their tails until she could escape.
The dead girl was harder to explain. She told them she had to suffocate her in self defense.
They'd believed her. For now.
The window in the room showed the hallway passing the desks of the precinct and cops in their navy uniforms walked by every couple of minutes. She made sure she didn't look nervous, but shell shocked. When her fingers started tapping together, she told them to stop.
And then someone not in a uniform walked by.
Someone she knew and someone she couldn't be linked to.
Her dark strawberry blonde hair pulled Cassidy's attention and body out of her fake shell shocked state and she halfway stood at the surprise, at the sudden streak of fear that shot through her but then stopped and sat telling herself to calm down. Breathe.
She needed to get through this, then when they took her to get medical attention she would run.
The door opened and the tall police officer walked in.
He was handsome. In a rugged, almost too angular way.
But he had been kind to her and she could tell he liked what he saw when he looked at her.
She could use that. Shame she needed to make a run for it or he'd be the kind of man she would love to have hanging around her.
On top of her. Any position really. The man looked like he knew how to throw a girl around the bedroom.
Maybe if she got the evidence planted, the dumb witch twins got arrested and she got her house back without anything linking her to the murder...
Murders. Now there was more than one because of that bitch of a teenager.
But then there was the sticky detail of Isla. Why was she here?
"Officer," she started.
He didn't look at her as he took a seat reading papers tucked into a folder and answered, "Chief."
Chief? Warning bells started going off.
"Oh. Um, thank you for being so kind. I was," she pushed out a tear and a shiver went through her body. "I thought I was going to die."
He did look up then, from the file in his hand that he laid flat with his phone on top and his eyes connected with hers. "Did you think you were going to die when you plotted Bentley Goran's death?"
She tried not to freeze and instead look confused.
He pulled up something on his phone and then pushed it toward her where she watched herself from moments ago see someone pass the window and her entire demeanor change as she lifted herself halfway out of the seat.
She didn't react now. She held herself perfectly still. He then pushed the file and spread out three pictures in front of her.
Pictures of her with Isla Tierney. His large hand pushed pages across the table and more still frames of them together were slowly pushed across the table.
There was that night at The Dancing Snail when she'd hexed Eloise using Isla as the hex mule.
The same night she'd seen Bentley stalking Eloise in the darkened corners of the club and she'd realized she needed to get rid of the oaf.
He had been an idiot. All brawn, no brain.
"Isla," she said still holding a confused look on her face.
"I met her at a bar and we've hung out a few times," she explained.
He nodded, his face blank. She could usually read people but the man was an expert at not showing his cards.
He showed one more picture of just her on his phone.
"That was tonight. When you were supposedly kidnapped.
" He pulled his phone back and switched the screen and she watched a recording of her sipping from a cocktail glass.
She'd gone to the bar tonight before going to the house.
She realized her folly with a sinking feeling.
She realized the chief wasn't talking. When she looked up he was watching her with the look of a man who had made his case.
She paled. Her heart beat faster.
Her hands were wringing together hard underneath the cold table. The room was suddenly warm but she kept her composure.
"So, I'm confused and I don't like living in the land of confusion so help me out," he said leaning back. "Were you kidnapped after this surveillance was taken at 1:04 this morning and you confused a few hours with days? That seems odd."
She didn't answer.
He waited.
"What's even more odd is that you already have a file here.
From a couple of decades ago. But you know what gets odder still?
" He tapped a large index finger against the table.
The thump thump collided with her galloping heartbeat.
"You used to live in The Lost Souls House.
Hmm. Now that's just odd." He looked at an older file.
"Quite the rap sheet, Miss Parker. Accusations of some really dark things.
" He read for a few moments. Her hands wrung in sweaty movements.
She kept silent. Words and lies would not find their place here.
Then he looked up at her. "Did you really steal Joanna Burns's chickens and leave the chicken hearts strung up on her front porch? "
Her hands were tightly clenched together but she kept her body as still as possible and her face was no longer trying to convey extreme fear mixed with trauma.
She had. Joanna had told her to stay away from her husband in the grocery store when she'd caught her talking to her stupid husband and thought she was flirting.
She had been, but that was beside the point.
Joanna needed to learn her place. The string of small chicken hearts had been genius.
She'd put dried flowers between them to make it more macabre. She almost smiled at the memory.
Chief Landry watched without emotion as the woman across from him transformed from a meek, scared woman to one holding her shoulders straight and head back, pulling on a strength that he could only guess was from some kind of darkness he wanted no part of.
He knew people like her.
He'd dealt with many.
He moved here because of that.
"I don't think I'll answer any more questions for now," she said.
He nodded. "Wisest thing you've said yet. No matter. No amount of money you pay a lawyer will get you out of the evidence we've collected. My partner here will take you to your temporary quarters until you're processed."
He stood and put his phone in his pocket.
"Doesn't exonerate Eloise Willow," she said. "Their use of dark magic will only continue unless you make a deal with me and I stop it," she said lifting her head trying to stay above the water starting to drown her.
He tilted his head. "I've already taken care of exonerating her. And so has Isla Tierney."
He leaned down just the slightest, a mere two inches but it did its intended job by making her push back, losing a piece of her ground.
"And as far as magic goes, I have seen a lot of strange things since moving here to Salem, but I have seen a lot more evil, traumatic broken things where I come from and as far as I'm concerned, locking you up might just take care of any 'dark magic', and if we're left with strange things instead of evil?
" He nodded easily and stood straight again.
"I'll take that with my cup of black coffee in the morning without concern. "
"You're making a mistake," she tried again.
He tilted his head, considering her. "You don't even care that you've killed.
" He said it as an observation, a fact. Like he'd dealt with her kind before.
She doubted it. But then something lit in his eyes and he flashed her an unkind smile and she reared back at the shock of it.
At what she was seeing in his smile. But just as quickly as he shocked her, his face slackened into his stoic composure making her reel, questioning her reality.
For the first time she lost her composure and surged to her feet with a screech, reaching out both hands formed into claws that he easily avoided by stepping back leaving her belly down on the cold table kicking and growling.
"See you in court, Miss Parker."
And with that he left her to the officers with a pair of handcuffs and her rights.
He stepped into the waiting room where Eloise Willow was being hugged fiercely by Ursula Cambridge and watched as the two friends smiled and laughed the way that women have a particular gift for; in relief and respite.
He'd seen evil, too much in his time, and while he moved here for a purpose and a hope to get away from it, he had no qualms about staring it in the face and giving it no ground in this strange town.